SPAIN: Chewed Up

A word that no
Italian likes to hear is "Caporetto," the name of the Alpine village
where in 1917 the Italian army broke and ran in the most ignominious
rout of the War. Italians heard that word many times last week as fact
after fact emerged to show that the defeat of the Italian legions was
overwhelming, catastrophic, perhaps un piccolo Caporetto ("a little
Caporetto"). Air fighters on both sides are now so good that daylight
bombing of important centres is considered too risky. Madrid has not
been daylight-bombed for two months....